Christmas in Florida
by NASCARLUCY
Summary: Spencer Reid and Lila share a weekend in December that they never will forget nor will anyone else.
1. Chapter 1

While some women would be bothered by the fact that Reid never made a move, it really didn't bother Lila at all. She had total control which she liked. She needed to have some control in her life, something she had lacked for a very long time. Over the last 5 years, she'd trained Reid well. He'd been a quick learner having had no experience with any woman prior to meeting her. She knew that right off the bat but pretended that she didn't know.

She also hadn't been careful about using birth control having had a couple of drinks before going into the pool. This had given her the courage to come unto Reid, something she'd never done with any previous partner. They continued their affair in the huge bathroom in her home while his FBI co-workers slept.

Shortly thereafter her roommate was caught, and then Reid went back to Washington D.C. A couple of days later her roommate committed suicide. Lila found out she was pregnant shortly thereafter.

Lila Archer grew up in the small town of Christmas Beach, Florida. Christmas was a big thing in the town. A couple of weeks before Christmas, the town had a Tour of Homes. Many of the homes on the beach or across the street were built back in the 1960's. Lila's grandmother was one of the first people to settle in the area. In 1965 the home which Lila now used was one of the highlights of the tour of homes. The old house had Christmas decorations on the yard. It had beautiful small wreaths on the door. The wreaths on the door were made by six year old Hannah Reid

Lillian Archer was Lila's paternal grandmother. Her parents along with her maternal grandparents and paternal grandfather had died in a house fire many years ago (right after her first year of college). Lila and her grandmother were at the grocery store when it happened. For years the arson fire was unsolved. Shortly after Lila's room mate was arrested, she told investigators that she started the fires. She was jealous of the close relationship Lila had with her family. She had hoped to cause a rift between Lillian and her granddaughter but that never occurred. They became closer as a result.

Five years ago her beloved grandmother had died She had gotten the home and decided to continue her grandmother's tradition of showing the house. After the incident with the roommate, Lila had tried to take on a much lower profile. Didn't really work too well.

The first year she did the open house, reporters and news media wanted to know who the father of her child was. She refused to tell them. Her pregnancy had become public knowledge even though she hardly showed. It wasn't long before others in the community put their two cents in. A newspaper editorial criticized Lila for not marrying the father of her child. A pastor on a radio show said that Lila was a poor role model for young women and should ask God for forgiveness of sin.

At that point Lila almost wished she had stayed in LA. No one would care and it wouldn't be the talk of the town for months. The story was largely ignored in the main press.

If they weren't talking about her pregnancy, then they were talking about going into the church and confessing to have sex with her boyfriend. This boyfriend was now a famous actor who basically dumped her after her confession in the church. The last time she had seen him was at a party a couple of years ago. Their eyes met but then he turned away from her ignoring her.

Spencer Reid had come to visit. He knew all about the house and the history of it. He was the tour guide for the tour. Hannah played the piano for the guests that came in. Lila sang Christmas music or told stories to the kids.

The Tour of Homes went from 12-5 on Saturday and then 1-4 on Sunday. Finally the last person had come by. It was almost 4:15 p.m. A community dinner would be served at 6:00 pm. Saturday.

"Mom, Dad, there's a man on the third floor hiding in the closet." Said Hannah.

The man had no idea that Lila had an elaborate security system and they could see the man from downstairs. Lila called the police. Police Chief Becker came in the back door and up the stairs. He caught the man in the closet going through Lila's things.

Normally the Police Chief didn't like the press coming around, but he wanted to make sure that everyone saw the guy he was arresting for trespassing. The news media was invited into the house and filmed the man being handcuffed and led out the door. Lila looked at him in disgust, Reid scowled at him, and Hannah asked him why he was going through her dad's closets. A crowd outside had started to gather having heard the news.

Lila, Reid and Hannah went to the Community Dinner, a short walk down the street. By this time, the media had left and were headed to the county jail 30 miles away. Nearly everyone in town knew about the intruder and his arrest.

Although anyone was welcomed to the Christmas Dinner, Chief Becker knew everyone there. Anyone connected with the intruder had left town rather quickly he assumed. They were probably bailing the man out of jail. About an hour and a half later, the Police Chief arrived at the dinner. He took Lila to the side and told her what had happened.

When the trio came out of the dinner a couple of hours later, it was cold out. Although it had been very hot earlier in the day, as soon as the sun went down, it got very cool. Cold front had come in.

There was a bedroom right by the front door. Lila's 2 German Shepard dogs lived in that room. They had been taken out due to the open house but were back in their cozy room. The back bedroom didn't have much privacy. The master bedroom had too many windows. There were too many windows in the house. This was according to Spencer Reid. Lila had the master bedroom downstairs, Hannah was on the second floor, and Reid when he was there slept on the third floor. What an evening it had been.


	2. Chapter 2

Part Two Lila and Reid's Christmas Adventures

Sunday Morning

After having a nice breakfast Lila, Reid and Holly headed off to church. This was only the second time in his life Reid had been in a church. He never felt comfortable in church. Lila felt it would be good for Holly to have some religious background or training. Lila had rebelled against her strict Southern Baptist upbringing. She had rebelled against it big time getting kicked out of middle school for wearing mini skirts and cursing at her classmates. This was near the end of the school year.

She got away with this because her parents were having marital problems, and she was sent to live with her paternal grandparents. Both grandmothers were in the hospital for hip and knee replacements. Her paternal grandfather never mentioned it to them. He picked her up from school and that was that. They found out right before school started in the fall.

When she was 18 years old, she had gone into the church and told the entire congregation that she'd had sex with her boyfriend for several months and enjoyed every minute of it. She was told that she should repent but she did the opposite. Her parents were totally mortified as was her two grandmothers. Lila's membership was revoked. Her paternal grandfather who had been thrown out of the church years ago for cursing at the pastor came into the church a week later and cursed at the pastor for condemning his beloved granddaughter for sinning during the service.

Lila chuckled when she remembered this. He paternal grandmother wanted to crawl in a hole (her husband's cursing embarrassed her no end), her maternal grandmother had a look of horror on her face and her parents wished they were anywhere but the church at that moment.

Except for attending the funerals of family members killed in the arson fire, she never set foot in the First Baptist Church of Christmas Beach. She imagined that some people in the church probably thought her grandfather got what he deserved for sinning and cursing all the time but of course would never say anything because of their love for her grandmother.

Lila had gone back to Christmas Beach after she found out she was pregnant. Her grandmother wasn't too thrilled when she told her that she wasn't marrying Spencer Reid. She was the talk of the town especially at her grandmother's church. There was a new pastor of her church but he was the son of the previous pastor. He knew all about Lila's grandfather and Lila.

She liked the Interfaith Christmas Church which she was going to. Most of the people who went to this church were newcomers (lived in Christmas Beach less than 10 years), or tourists. These people didn't care about Lila's past history. .

Sunday Afternoon

The tour of homes continued. The Police Chief had kept a close eye on who came in and out of town. It turned out that the man who was in Lila's home was a political reporter who tried to dig up dirt on people for political reasons. He had targeted Lila but hadn't gotten any dirt. The Police Chief didn't know why Lila was being targeted. Lila didn't either. One picture that he had taken was of Spencer Reid arriving at the house on Friday Night. Another picture was of Reid playing chess with his daughter in the backyard garden. Pictures of the inside of her home were also found. The evidence tech had put these away.

Mark Quinn had come to see the house with his wife Martha. Over the years, he had to admit, he been a real jerk. He had ignored Lila the last time he saw her couple of years ago. He didn't really know what he would say. When he came into the house she was in the kitchen taking some cookies out of the oven.

Hannah was playing the piano. He knew that she had a daughter.

Reid was out in the Garden talking to some guests. Lila came out and put the cookies on the tray and brought them out into the living room. She was so shocked to see Mark that she almost dropped the cookies on the floor.

"Hi, I'm Martha, Mark's wife. And you must be Lila. I've heard so much about you."

"Nice to meet you. "Said Lila shaking her hand. She said hello to Mark.

The couple quickly moved on which Lila was relieved. The old memories had begun.

When ex-boyfriend Mark Quinn and Lila were together they had broken into the church and had helped themselves to some left over food from a Christmas party. Mark took a sit in the kitchen at the kitchen table. Mark just sat there looking into the camera and talking while Lila prepared the meal.

At that time Mark had long jet black hair and green eyes. He had black fingernails and had makeup on. He looked like he was a member of a heavy metal band. He was dressed in black swimming trucks. He pulled out a can of beer and demanded that Lila open the bottle for her. He handed to her. She shook the can and then opened it. Beer went everywhere. He didn't know that she had shaken the bottle.

"What the hell is wrong with you woman."

Then he looked at the camera. He screamed at the camera and used curse words Lila's grandfather had probably never heard of. Lila's just started laughing. He then took out rolling paper, put some marijuana into it and started smoking it.

"You know what Mark; you can talk to the youth group about smoking marijuana. I'm sure that will go over very well."

They both laughed hysterically.

"We will continue our sinning by dancing. "

The couple danced around. Lila was wearing a bikini that left nothing to the imagination. It wasn't long before Mark was all over her. She quickly pushed him away and looked at him with a look of horror. .

"We are in a church, Mark. This is God's house. At least have respect for that. "

Mark had to agree with her but said, "Look at how you're dressed before you say anything to me. "

"You told me to dress this way."

"Okay, we'll continue our dalliance somewhere else."

It wasn't long before the smell of marijuana had taken over both of them. They went in back of the church where the Olympic Size swimming pool was. The couple jumped into the pool and started kissing each other. They later got out of the pool and got unto a couch. They didn't know that the church had installed a camera trying to catch some kids who were suspected of using the pool.

Before leaving, the couple had thrown all the patio furniture and the couch into the pool.

Mark got out of getting into trouble by blaming it all on Lila. In church he told the congregation that Lila had let him down the wrong path. He said exactly what they wanted him to. He had also cut his hair and was dressed in a suit (something he rarely did).

Lila didn't know what he had said prior to coming into the church and saying what she did. Had she, she never ever would have said what she said. She had said it for shock value but years later her comments had never been forgotten.

"Lila" said Reid.

"Oh I'm sorry. My mind was wondering."

"You look like you just saw a ghost. Is something wrong?"

"No, I'm fine."

Around 7:30 p.m. was the Christmas Program at the Civil Center. Everyone came.

While everyone was enjoying the Christmas music, an intruder had broken into the First Baptist Church and was looking for a DVD. After about an hour of looking, bingo, found it... The intruder made a copy and left the original. He quickly left with a smile on his face.

While everyone in Christmas Beach was enjoying a Christmas Show, the intruder posted the You Tube video and sent it to several news agencies.

Lila's daughter was staying with a friend. Tonight Lila and Reed would have all to themselves for a change.


	3. Chapter 3

Part Three Very Late Sunday Evening

Lila and Reid were in the closet on the third floor. It was really cold tonight and this room was always the warmest. Hannah was at a friend's sleepover. Usually they would check their e-mails but they were tired. The Christmas Program had lasted 3 hours.

It had been about two months since the two had been intimate with each other. Neither one of them were dating others. A CD of Christmas Jazz Music was put on. They fell asleep in each other arms.

The next morning Reid left to go to the airport.

Horror was the reaction when Lila saw the You Tube Video shortly thereafter. Many people at first assumed that Mark and Lila were acting in a home movie, except in this movie everything was real. However the movie narrative had political overtones to it the culture wars being the prominent theme of it. Mark was portrayed as the one who was led astray while Lila was repeatedly referred to as a Jezebel. One time she was called a harlot. Her paternal grandfather was portrayed as one who represented the devil and who was possessed by the devil. The scene of him coming into the church and cursing at the pastor and in the town square cursing was shown several times in the movie. In the 1960's, he'd been arrested for protesting the Vietnam War and cursing in public. Anti-American and left-wing radical was what the video said about Lila's paternal grandfather.

Her other grandparents and parents did not escape criticism. Feminist grandmothers and anti-establishment parents. No one in her family was spared.

Everyone in town had seen the video and had people all over the world. Mark Quinn was also mortified when he saw the video. It didn't make sense since neither he nor Lila was involved in politics.


	4. Chapter 4

The man who had stolen the DVD from the Baptist Church in Christmas Beach had been arrested. This man had gotten caught by bragging about it and posting it on You Tube.

The pastor of the church didn't have much to say about the tape. He denied releasing the tape or having anything to do with it being a You Tube but didn't deny knowing about its existence. The tape was never shown because Mark's parents were very prominent people and gave a lot of money to the church. It would make Mark look very bad. The people that originally made the tape had no idea that Mark Quinn was in it. That was before he was famous.

Originally the tape was supposed to be about the downfall of America and examples of this downfall. It was a political action committee, one that Mark's parents gave large sums of money to and supported. The last thing that group would want to do would be to upset one of its highest donors. Lila Archer was the perfect poster child. Had the guy in the video been someone other than Mark or someone who was considered an outcast, the DVD would have been shown. The tape then was put away in the pastor's office where it had been forgotten about for nearly 10 years.

Whoever had made the video had done a lot of research on Lila Archer and her family. There was a clip of Lila's grandfather in 1969 when he was arrested for protesting the Vietnam War at City Hall. With him was Lila's mother who was 13 at the time.

A reporter from CNN investigating the matter found out those taxpayer dollars in Florida had been used to make this DVD, especially since the DVD was not shown or sold.

Since there wasn't much else to report, this was the main news of the day.

Mark Quinn was at home with his wife of six months watching this all unfold. Although it wasn't shown much on the TV, the clip of him and Lula at the church had received the most hits on You Tube. . Thankfully his children who were toddlers were too young to know about this. He didn't have to explain to them anything, yet. Trying to take the video down didn't help much. It came back up over and over again.

He could just imagine what his parents who were still alive would be thinking. They had contributed large sums of money to this group. Once Mark became famous, they criticized the types of movies he was in, movies where there was a lot of cursing, sexual activity outside of marriage, violence and drug and alcohol addiction. His family although not crazy about some of the movies he was in, defended him.

The final straw came when individuals from this same political action committee attacked Mark's fiancé for having a child out of wedlock a couple of years later. In Mark's mind, this was none of their business but was a private matter. His family had a similar opinion and had expressed to him that they hoped that marriage was in the future for them and left it at that. Mark parents were furious when someone from this group talked about a private conversation that they had had about this. In their mind, this was a private conversation, not to be discussed on TV. They never gave another dime to this organization. Someone in the organization who was angry about it decided to get back at them. This person hired someone to go to the town to find out dirt about Mark. It wasn't that difficult. But it went beyond Mark.

The same political action committee was angry with Spencer Reid because he told Hotch that a case that they had presented to them wasn't criminal and was a waste of resources. Hotch agreed with Reid on this matter.

A man had been stalking Reid for several weeks. Reid wasn't really aware of it until Hannah had come for a weekend. Hannah told him that she kept seeing the same man hanging around when they went out to dinner and when they were playing chess at the chess park. The man was also seen by several neighbors of Reid hanging around the apartment complex. Reid told Hotch but apparently the man was tipped off as he was never seen again until Reid saw him being arrested on TV.

Ella Woods was half African-American, and half white. Her white father had given her the home he lived in prior to his death. Back 50 years ago, the house was out in the middle of nowhere (undeveloped beach property) north of Ormond Beach, Florida.

In the mid 1960's people from the mid-west and other parts of the country started to buy up land in that 13 mile stretch of land. By 1970 there were about 250 people who lived in Christmas Beach. By 2010 there were about 500 people. It had been kept small by various laws on the books that it made it difficult for development.

Residents from Christmas Beach had seen the man around the beginning of the year. He lived next door. Ella Woods who had lived in the house for nearly 50 years had died about 4 days after New Years, the year before. Lila found her sitting on the front porch. She had died shortly after her daily one hour of singing which was usually one hour before sunset. She would sing rain or shine. Cold weather didn't stop her either. She had done this for so long that no one could remember a time when she didn't sing.

Usually after singing, she would go in her house and retire for the evening. It was almost dark and Lila noticed that she was still sitting in her chair. She thought she might have fallen asleep. She went over to her to see if she was okay and touched her. She was cold to the touch. Lila got her cell phone out and called 911.

Ella had no children. Her nephew had sold the house shortly after she died. Reid had seriously considered buying the home but someone else offered to pay a larger sum for the house. House values had gone down considerably and the person who bought it paid $5,000 more than it was worth. The person he sold it to wasn't officially on this political action committee but had ties to it.

There was something about this new neighbor that Lila didn't trust. Couldn't put a finger on it but something about him was not right. Why he would move to Christmas Beach seemed odd. He wasn't friendly towards anyone except her and seemed to be interested in her. He always seemed to be out on his porch watching who was coming and going but he seemed particularly interested in her comings and going.

Ella was 90 years old when she died. Lila wished she was still here. At the Christmas tour of homes, it was the first time since they started doing the tours that her house was not open. Very sad and it brought tears to Lila's eyes when she thought about it.

During the tour of homes people who weren't participating in the Tour of Homes would come outside and socialize with the people that came. The man who lived next door to Lila went inside and refused to socialize with anyone.

This man knew that Lila had two large German Shepherds who looked like Wolf Dogs. He didn't know that there slept in the room which was by the front door. He came up on her porch (it was about 5:00 a.m.) and the dogs went nuts. Lila turned on the outside light. He made some stupid excuse as to why he was there and then left. For several days after that, Lila was very uneasy. She debated over telling police about this but when the reporter was arrested for being in her home, she told the Police Chief about it.

The Police Chief looked at footage taken when he arrested the trespasser. He noticed that the man next door wasn't anywhere around. The house was dark except for a porch light and his car was gone. The man was not at the Christmas dinner. Only 4 other people from the town weren't there and three of them were elderly who were very ill and the other person was out of town due to a death in the family. This is how he figured out who broke into the Baptist Church. He had a suspect but couldn't do anything until he had proof. Shortly thereafter he had proof with the suspect bragging about what he did.

When the FBI later searched his house they found all this evidence. He was trying to get information about Mark from the church his parents attended. Another person had started going to the church Lula went to trying to get information.

Hotch just shook his head when he read all this. He was surprised that the group didn't know about the film he destroyed of Reid and Lila making out in the swimming pool. The group did get one film of Reid and Lila together at the zoo with Hannah. The parents strolling along with Hannah in tow. Hannah was 4 years old at the time. . Hannah pointing at the animals. The trio eating ice cream at a picnic bench.

A pair of Lions decided that they were going to mate. Reid's face turned as red as a beet. He tried not to look at them. It looked like he was starting to say something but the look on Lila face said Be Quiet. Hannah burst into hysterical laughter.

This political action committee had been secret and had gotten away with things for years. The last couple of years they had become more brazen but they step on the wrong toes this time. Ella's nephew was also being investigated as well. This involved a dispute regarding an old civil rights case going back to the 1960's. Her nephew had unknowingly sold her home to his political enemies.

Mark Quinn wrote Lila a long letter apologizing to what he had done over 10 years ago. She wrote him back accepting her apology. Both had made peace with it.


End file.
